Apr 14, 2012

I have met a lot of individuals pretending to be Marines. It is usually very obvious - they have terrible angst over all the combat stress they have encountered. But unless they are pretty slick they get tripped up on the units they served in, the years, etc.

Apr 13, 2012

Dear Col Craig H Hullinger USMCR (Ret),I want to wish all our Members, our veterans and, our great Marines a happy and safe 4th of July Celebration. Thank you all for protecting our freedom.On 23 June, in conjunction with Marine Week St. Louis, we hosted an MCA Dinner there with LtGen Robert Milstead, Jr. Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs as our guest speaker. I want to extend my thanks to LtGen Milstead for fitting us into his busy schedule, and for his great remarks. Click HERE to visit the MCA website page with additional pictures of the dinner and Marine Week activities. The Marine Corps Association Foundation's (MCAF) professional development programs continue to grow and expand in support of individual Marines and requests from Commanders to provide programs that highlight Marine excellence and provide unique professional development opportunities. To date, through the auspices of the Marine Excellence Awards Program, MCAF has provided 1,384 deserving Marines with recognition for their professionalism in the form of trophies, plaques, Marine swords, K-Bar's, watches and professional books. The Commanders' Professional Library Program has provided, or is in the process of providing Commanders with 116 unit libraries to assist them in enhancing the professional development of their Marines. Our Commanders' Forum Program has provided opportunities for Marine units to study historical military operations and visit battle sites. The Gettysburg battle for the Wounded Warrior Regiment, the World War-I battle of Belleau Wood for select staff from 2d Marine Air Wing, and a campaign study of the Civil War Peninsular Campaign of 1862 for participants from Marine Corps Forces Command have been completed and we have additional requests being processed. Your member dues and donations enable the MCA to provide this valuable support to Marines. Please help us if you can as demands for our programs are growing. Select pictures and links to additional pictures are provided further below in your June MCA Member Update.If you haven't done so already, please check out our new MCA web log (Blog) located HERE It started in May and keeps generating interest and response comments from its growing readership. In addition to writers exploring Marine Corps historical events and advice on family life and family separation, the blog also features Andrew Lubin, a well know author who writes about Marines. Currently he is embedded with Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and blogging about his experiences there. I encourage everyone to visit the blog frequently to stay informed and engaged in the discussion.Thank you very much for your support! As always, please let me hear from you. You can do that by emailing MCA at comments@mca-marines.org.All the Best & Semper Fidelis,Edward G. Usher, IIIMajor General, USMC (Ret)President and Chief Executive Officer

Apr 12, 2012

U.S. Navy Seaman Garrett Keith, a corpsman serving with Delta Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, places an LAV driver’s helmet on a memorial stand honoring Cpl. Roberto Cazarez, a fallen LAV driver who served with the company’s Alpha Section, White Platoon, during a memorial service April 8, 2012. Cazarez, an Angostura, Mexico, native, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in Los Angeles, was killed in action during combat operations March 30, 2012. Some of his closest fellow Marines said he’ll be remembered most for his humor and good-natured debates he sparked among his friends. Keith is a Oklahoma City native.

COMBAT OUTPOST CASTLE, Afghanistan – “It’s going to be a little quiet and boring the rest of the deployment now … without his jokes and all the other stuff he gets us into.”

Cpl. Anthony Gamino, a rifleman and light armored vehicle scout with Delta Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, said this after a memorial service held here, April 8, for a fallen fellow Marine, Cpl. Roberto Cazarez.

Marines and sailors serving with 1st LAR in Helmand province’s Khan Neshin district paid homage to Cazarez, a light armored vehicle driver with the company’s Alpha Section, White Platoon, who was killed in action during combat operations March 30.

Like most Marines, Cazarez was quite the character in his unit. His fellow Marines said his spirit in the unit is irreplaceable.

Cazarez was born in Angostura, Mexico. After he graduated from high school in Los Angeles, he enlisted in the Marine Corps to serve a country that he wasn’t a citizen of yet.

His first job in the Marine Corps was as a small arms repair technician, commonly known as an armorer to Marines. After he served his first enlistment, he made an uncommon occupation change – he reenlisted into the infantry field, specifically as a light armored vehicle crewman.

Yet, his distinctive background wasn’t what he was really known for. He had qualities that were perhapsa bit more unique that Marines said kept them on their toes, close-knit and always smiling.

He was a man of good-natured debates, and “it didn’t matter what it was about, or who it was with.”

“Kickball. It’s a simple game, but he’d argue every single point about it,” said Cazarez’s friend and fellow platoon member Cpl. John W. Nelson II, a Turner, Maine, native. “A couple days before he was killed, we were playing kickball as a platoon at our patrol base, and he was arguing with our platoon sergeant about the score, about the rules of the game and about anything you could think of. He would always argue a good point.”

His wit extended further than arguments, according to everyone who reflected on Cazarez at the ceremony. Gamino said no matter what, he always had a joke for something.

“If you had a joke for him, he had a joke for you,” said Gamino, a native of Oceanside, Calif. “We’d pretty much just make fun of each other. You couldn’t even get mad at him. You pretty much had to laugh and walk away.”

Cazarez’s platoon commander, 1st Lt. Alexander White, a Fredericksburg, Va., native, said his greatsense of humor was a way to “just keep everybody engaged” and “included.”

Cazarez was the platoon commander’s light armored vehicle driver. Their mission usually entailed patrolling the rugged battle space, detaching from the outpost for almost weeks at a time. His platoonmates said driving wasn’t enough for him. He always volunteered to patrol on foot, a responsibility normally left for the scouts.

“When the crewman would come out to patrol, he’d always come up to us and say ‘throw us on patrols,throw us on patrols,’” said Turner, who was a team leader in the section.

His enthusiasm for patrolling and contributing to the mission came with a price he was willing to pay:carrying the Thor, a counter improvised explosive device system that protects Marines from remotedetonating IEDs. The system weighs more than 25 pounds and isn’t an easy piece of gear to carry, saidTurner.

“He’d always carry the Thor,” said Turner. “It really pulled down on your shoulders really bad, and thebatteries are extremely heavy for it. But if carrying the Thor is what it took to get on a (foot) patrol, thenhe was all about it.”

During the memorial service, some of Cazarez’s close friends read personal reflections of their fallenfriend. Most of which were light-spirited and filled with funny anecdotes. Lieutenant Col. George C.Schreffler, the battalion commander, reminded those in attendance of the impact Marines like Cazarezhad in the land they patrolled.

“Cpl. Cazarez made important contributions to the success of his platoon and to the security of thecommunities where he served in Afghanistan,” said Schreffler, a native of Harrisburg, Pa. “On the daybefore he fell, I enjoyed the privilege of visiting 2nd Platoon, and patrolling with the Marines in thevillage of Qual-e Now. We encountered Afghan people who expressed their gratitude for the securitythat the Marines provide. We also inspected the police precinct in Qual-e Now. While there, thepatrolman greeted us warmly and by name. This kind of relationship is difficult to achieve and it displayed to me the dedication and skill that Cpl. Cazarez and the other members of 2nd Platoon (White Platoon) invest in their mission every day.”

Cazarez is survived by his wife Sonia. Sgt. Gregory Hartman, a vehicle commander with Delta Company,said Cazarez loved being a Marine, but his love for his wife was “indescribable with words.”

“She was his world,” he said.

Delta Company’s first sergeant, 1st Sgt. Erik Starkey, said the Marines will be praying for the Cazarezfamily and “he’ll do great things for God up in heaven.”